Trump’s North American Trade Deal Must do More to Protect U.S. Jobs

Share:

Mexico didn’t foist NAFTA on the United States, despite President Donald Trump’s constant claims that the U.S. loses “so much money” on the deal. We did it to ourselves, and we did it deliberately.

Corporations wanted to create in Mexico a low-wage haven where they could shift production, expecting us to happily buy the imported goods built with cheap Mexican labor—while exporting our jobs.

Trump’s new trade pact, the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, includes sweetheart deals for the oil, gas and pharmaceutical industries that create huge problems for consumers. But it also perpetuates the original NAFTA’s core problem, the one the president himself has talked about most: shifting U.S. production to Mexico.

If Mr. Trump is unwilling to tackle the central flaw of what he has called “the worst trade deal in history,” his won’t be any better.